We bicycled the Formula 1 racetrack in Montreal

Montreal, I discovered, has some great bicycle infrastructure. But I didn’t expect it to include a Formula One racetrack.

You know, a place where cars go around at 100+ miles an hour, drivers have to judge a hairpin turn and sometimes crash into a wall.

Yet it turns out the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is open for much of the year (weather-dependent) to cyclists, runners, walkers and rollerbladers. And it doesn’t cost a cent.

Count on the Fornula 1 fan in the house to find this.

Even if you dream of being Michael Schumacher (the racer with the most wins on the Montreal track), you as a cyclist do have to stick to the 30 km/hour (18 mph) speed limit.

That’s what I did .. til I hit a different kind of wall: a headwind. No speed record here.

So how did we get to the track? We stayed in the kinda suburban Westmount section and mapped out a route using some of the city’s many bike lanes.

We hit a roundabout along Canal de Lachine where the path meets a bike/ped bridge; at the roundabout, take the second exit, intoned our bike directions. Then through an industrial area; the silos reminded me of our day in Buffalo before cycling the Erie Canal, and flashing yellow lights cautioned truck drivers to look out for cyclists.

Then a bike-friendly bridge over to Parc Jean-Drapeau and the F1 track.

After doing our loop, we headed to the nearby Biosphere, created to house the U.S exhibit at Expo 67 and now a museum. So cool just to look at from the outside!

Then back to look at the rowing basin used in the 1976 Olympics and still used by rowers today.

I was curious about a long, thin strip of land with a bike path in the St. Lawrence River. So off we went on the Piste de la Voie Maritime, sometimes paved, sometimes crushed stone, and sometimes part of Quebec’s amazing Route Verte system of bike routes. Stop under the new Champlain bridge for a view of downtown Montreal off in the distance.

Nope, we didn’t make it all the way to the end.

Instead we opted for the low Estacade bridge, next to the tall Champlain one and the last chance to get back to Montreal. Did I see speed signs for cyclists?

If you’re relying on wayfinding signage here, it will probably fail you. Even Montreal, it turns out, has its weak spots. But we did our best to spot the Route Verte signs to get back to the canal, then to Atwater Market and eventually a fast-casual Middle Eastern place highlighted by Eater. Definitely time for a late lunch!

What else can I say about biking in Montreal?

• No glass on the roads (looking at you, Philly).
• Signs at some intersections that say bikers can go on the walk signal. And so many crossings where all car traffic was halted and pedestrians could all cross at once in whatever direction they needed to go.

• Stop lines for cars set well before the intersection while the stop line for the bike lane is at the intersection. That puts cyclists in drivers’ field of vision.
• Pair that with green “go straight” arrows before a full green light, and there’s less of a chance that a cyclist will get right-hooked.